Chloride is reported to play a significant role in corrosion reactions, products and kinetics of ferrous metals. To enhance the understanding of the effects of soil environments, especially the saline soils with high levels of chloride, on the corrosion of ductile iron and carbon steel, a 3-month corrosion test was carried out by exposing ferrous metals to soils of six chloride concentrations. The surface morphology, rust compositions and corrosion kinetics were comprehensively studied by visual observation, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD), weight loss, pit depth measurement, linear polarization and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) measurements. It showed that chloride ions influenced the characteristics and compositions of rust layers by diverting and participating in corrosion reactions. α-FeOOH, γ-FeOOH and iron oxides were major corrosion products, while β-Fe₈O₈(OH)₈Cl_1.35rather than β-FeOOH was formed when high chloride concentrations were provided. Chloride also suppressed the decreasing of corrosion rates, whereas increased the difficulty in the diffusion process by thickening the rust layers and transforming the rust compositions. Carbon steel is more susceptible to chloride attacks than ductile iron. The corrosion kinetics of ductile iron and carbon steel corresponded with the probabilistic and bilinear model respectively.

In this study, the optimal conditions and effects of external factors on tetracycline adsorption by magnetic multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MMWCNTs) were established by a response surface methodology for the first time. Batch adsorption experiments showed that increasing the dosage and contact time effectively promoted the adsorption of tetracycline and maximum removal of 97.93–99.13% was achieved at pH 3–7. The pseudo-second-order model and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy spectra indicated that the mechanism of adsorption may be π–π electron interaction and cation–π electron bonding. Design Expert was utilized to develop a response surface methodology for the analysis and optimization of tetracycline adsorption by magnetic multi-walled carbon nanotubes. The Box–Behnken design (BBD) results showed that the optimization exhibited high significance and reliability. The main effect plots and Pareto chart indicated that pH exerted a significant individual effect on the regulation of adsorption, while 3D response surface plots and interaction effect plots exhibited a significant antagonistic interaction between pH and contact time. A maximum tetracycline removal of 99.16% was achieved under the optimal conditions of 12 mg adsorbent dosage at pH 5.43, with an adsorption time of 120 min. Mathematical and experimental results confirmed the accuracy of the established optimal conditions.